A new round of anti-dumping investigations threatens to affect thousands of ceramic companies

The 0.7 dollar cup is exported to the European Union at a price of 3.5 U.S. dollars, and domestic companies only make a profit of 0.1 U.S. dollars. This is a low-margin industry that is currently facing EU anti-dumping charges against China.

On February 14, the China Ceramic Industry Association issued the Notice on Preparing Anti-Dumping Preparations for the EU Ceramic Kitchenware and Tableware (hereinafter referred to as the “Notice”). The “Notice” pointed out that the EU took note of the “Anti-Dumping Measures for Producing Ceramic Tableware in China”. The Chinese Mission to the European Union is likely to file this month. The relevant person in charge of the China Ceramic Industry Association told the "First Financial Daily" reporter that once the case is filed, more than 2,000 household ceramics production companies will be affected.

After the European Union filed the case, this will be the second anti-dumping investigation against China's ceramic tableware following the anti-dumping investigation launched by Indonesia on ceramic tableware (commodity ceramics). It is also the second time after the EU imposed a high anti-dumping duty on China's architectural ceramics last year. China's ceramic industry anti-dumping incident. In addition, South Korea, Argentina, Brazil, and other countries were also setting up trade barriers. In the future, the export situation of China's ceramics industry will become more severe.

Decline in exports According to statistics from China Ceramic Industry Association, in 2011, the cumulative amount of EU kitchen utensils exported by China exceeded US$700 million. The aforementioned person in charge of the Chinese ceramics industry told the reporter: “Earlier, the European Union had imposed a high anti-dumping tariff on building ceramics exported from China. However, China’s annual exports of EU architectural ceramics amounted to approximately US$300 million, accounting for only about 1% of the total export construction ceramics. In addition, as China's domestic construction ceramics market continues to grow, the export volume accounts for a small proportion of ceramic production, and the impact is not too great, and the daily ceramics that may be initiated anti-dumping will rely heavily on overseas markets and account for approximately With 11% of total exports, more than 2,000 companies will be affected. Considering the very low level of mechanization of daily-use ceramics, daily-use ceramics is a labor-intensive industry in our country and the number of labor involved is even greater."

The reason why the EU considers the initiation of an anti-dumping investigation against China's daily-use ceramics is related to the high market share of China's ceramics for daily use in the EU market. Ceramic Industry Association revealed that at present, China is already the largest producer of ceramics for daily use, and its output accounts for about 70% of the world's total. The reporter learned from a number of export-oriented daily-use ceramics enterprises in China that China’s daily-use ceramics accounted for nearly 50% of the EU market, making it the EU’s largest importer of daily-use ceramics.

The long-term export to the European daily-use ceramics company Magorante Bone Porcelain Co., Ltd. Gao Yan told the reporter that due to the ceramic industry is a labor-intensive industry, and the EU lacks labor cost advantages, many European ceramics companies give up production, to China OEM, EU There are few companies engaged in ceramic production.

Yang Lanli, sales manager of Guangdong Shunxiang Ceramics Co., Ltd., one of the largest domestic ceramic manufacturers, told reporters that due to the decline in domestic spending power caused by the EU debt crisis, the export value of daily ceramics to the EU has seen a decline of about 15% compared to the same period last year. If there is further anti-dumping, the export situation is not optimistic.

Low gross margin In fact, China's export EU ceramics profits are extremely low. Yang Xiaoli told the reporter that Shunxiang Ceramics is considered to be in a better profit situation, with a gross profit margin of approximately 10%, and other enterprises are even lower. For example, she said: “In the European Union’s market, which sells for US$3.5 as an example, the price that a company sells to an EU dealer is about US$0.7, and the company profits only about US$0.1. The US dollar actually earns more than 1 US dollar, which is 10 times that of the production enterprises in China. This is true for large-scale enterprises, and for other small companies, it is even more difficult. It can be seen that the profits of China’s ceramic export enterprises are very low, and the big profits are foreign dealers. .

Previously, the EU imposed a punitive tariff of up to 69.7% on China's export ceramic tile enterprises, and the validity period was as long as five years, and may be extended as the case may be. Under the pressure of anti-dumping, China’s market exports to relevant regions have dropped significantly. According to statistics from Foshan Customs, from January to October 2011, affected by anti-dumping measures, Foshan exported 26.85 million square meters of tiles to the EU, valued at US$160 million, and its volume and value dropped by 24.4% and 20.1% respectively.

The aforementioned ceramics industry association also emphasized that the current EU ceramics industry is not well developed, if excessive restrictions on China's imports of ceramics for daily use, local companies can hardly meet market demand, resulting in supply exceeding demand, causing local prices to rebound, so it is estimated that the EU will not be too strict The measures limit our exports.